Manage stress and strengthen resilience with support from ICAEW and caba, the independent occupational charity for the ICAEW community.
Audit can be demanding professionally, personally and particularly during the busy season. As the 2024/25 reporting season approaches, auditors may be considering ways to manage stress and build resilience as individuals, colleagues and team members, and as managers.
“Resilience is not a personality trait that only some people possess,” says Dr Cristian Holmes, CEO of caba, the occupational charity for the ICAEW community.
“Resilience is built through behaviours, thoughts and actions that anyone can learn and develop over time. A resilient mindset can help you transform challenges into opportunities, laying the groundwork for a healthier working life.”
Advice and support on this journey are available from ICAEW and from caba. ICAEW’s Insights special on mental health and wellbeing is a good entry point, as it offers many articles, and links to ICAEW’s employee wellbeing resources, its Support Members scheme and also to caba.
Resilience is built through behaviours, thoughts and actions that anyone can learn and develop over time
Present and past ICAEW members, close family dependents, ACA students and ICAEW staff have access to confidential and independent support through caba. Resources include support for mental, financial and physical health, as well as career advice, legal advice and many other services.
The caba website offers useful information, articles, access to e-learning courses, live and recorded webinars and other resources that may help you to develop your resilience by understanding more about how to deal with life’s challenges and build a strong foundation for facing difficult times.
For example, there are articles and webinars to help you understand, identify and manage anxiety and depression, with simple, practical, techniques to help you mitigate symptoms, spot signs in those around you, and offer support.
There are resources to help you identify symptoms of stress (in yourself and others) and understand potential workplace triggers. The resources on burnout offer advice on identifying it, techniques for preventing it, and include guidance for those managing teams. Recent caba research on stress and burnout also makes interesting reading for accountancy professionals.
A section on improving sleep quality shares insights on how sleep affects our mental health, why light and vitamin D are important to sleep quality, and the downsides of relying on alcohol to help you drop off.
We are all unique and finding a path to greater resilience will be different for each of us, but caba suggests some ways of building everyday resilience that may help us all on our journey.
| Focus on relationships | Build your connections |
| Join a group | |
| Foster wellness | Take care of your physical health |
| Practice mindfulness | |
| Avoid negative outlets | |
| Find purpose | Help others |
| Be proactive | |
| Move towards your goals | |
| Seek opportunities for self-discovery | |
| Keep perspective | |
| Accept change | |
| Maintain a hopeful outlook |
Audit & Assurance Faculty resources
Stay positive under pressure shares tips and resources to aid with busy season planning and preparation: from practical, technical and ethical considerations, to more personal stresses and strains.
Managing stress in the busy season offers pointers on signs of stress to watch out for, self-help steps for individuals, and considerations to help team managers minimise stress-related problems.
